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Program Information

Medical Physics Practice Guidelines


K Smith

P Halvorsen



K Smith1*, P Halvorsen2*, (1) Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD, (2) Lahey Clinic, Burlington, MA

Presentations

SU-C-BRD-0 (Sunday, March 8, 2015) 1:30 PM - 3:30 PM Room: Ballroom D


This presentation will describe the purpose, scope, and process for the development of MPPGs, with an expanded description of the two MPPGs related to appropriate supervision of individuals who are not board certified physicists, such as medical physics residents and medical physicist assistants. In addition, a review of current protocols on performance tests of medical linear accelerators and assess which tests are essential for safe and effective radiotherapy treatments will be discussed. MPPG #8 will describe the requisite tests to ensure safety of patients and staff, to provide high quality radiation therapy treatments and to reflect the characteristics of modern technology.

FEMA tools are used to rank tests from the current protocols to determine severity of harm if a test is not performed and occurrence and detectability of the failure of a clinical treatment parameter. The scores are noted in addition to approximate time needed to perform each test, whether a particular test should be performed after machine maintenance, regulatory considerations, and whether proceeding when a certain test fails is warranted if other mechanisms are in place to measure clinical parameters.

Accrediting organizations, regulatory agencies and legislators will be encouraged to reference these MPPGs when defining their respective requirements. MPPGs are intended to provide the medical community with a clear description of the minimum level of medical physics support that the AAPM would consider prudent in clinical practice settings. MPPG #8 includes but is not limited to, staffing, equipment, machine access, and training. The list is not meant to replace previous protocols but to provide medical physicists with reasonably achievable and clinically effective performance tests.

Qualified medical physicists are responsible for implementing recommended quality assurance protocols and in some cases are required to follow the protocols exactly by regulatory agencies. The current protocols are evaluated to ensure that recommended performance tests are necessary, relevant and will make the most efficient use of a clinical medical physicists’ time.

Learning Objectives:
1. Understand the convergence of external factors that are driving the trend toward minimum practice standards in clinical medical physics;
2. Understand the purpose and intended scope of the AAPM’s Medical Physics Practice Guidelines; and
3. Understand the considerations regarding appropriate supervision levels in clinical medical physics.
4. Understand the considerations regarding implementation of MPPG #8.


Handouts


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